04 Informed


DM Update Fruit of the Zoom


Tim Dawson put the virtual DM to the test and found digital innovation worked well


Te portents were ominous. It was Tursday aſternoon and a score of delegates logged on for a “technology familiarisation session”. Could video conferencing possibly deliver a rumbustious delegate meeting of more than 200 journalists? From the apparently swirling darkness


of Walthamstow, the top of the head of London Freelance veteran, Jenny Vaughan, loomed on screen. “Tis is worse than my wildest nightmares,” she cried, in a wail that might have been the disapproving ghost of Delegate Meetings past. With scarcely 10 per cent of the anticipated participants online, and Zoom sceptics ascendant, our conference seemed fatally glitched. As the handful of staff and Standing


Order Commitee members departed Headland House that evening, a menacing black cloud hung over King’s Cross. NUJ democracy had survived Hitler, the High Courts and Rupert Murdoch, but now, it seemed, insufficient bandwidth would lay us low. But it all went relatively smoothly. Michelle Stanistreet opened the gathering, aſter some technical motions had been voted in to allow the proceedings. Hers was an upbeat account of the union’s recent work and coming prospects – provided the subs’ vote went the right way. Without the mental parentheses of long rail journeys or flights, joining a delegate meeting from newsroom, kitchen or bedroom was an unfamiliar jolt. But as Friday morning wore on, and atention fixed on the issues at hand, an unanticipated miracle seemingly overcame us. For all the frustrations of down-the-line democracy, it felt less and less like a technological aberration and increasingly like an NUJ


delegate meeting. But could a Zoom gathering ever match the emotional intensity of a seaside hall brimful with disputatious trades unionists on the cusp of a big vote? Amazingly, as delegates found their feet and the order papers lumbered towards the vote on subscriptions, it began to seem as though it might. Te executive previewed the big vote


all day, weaving into every contribution the need to raise revenues. When the debate finally came, it was impossible not to feel awe that all over Britain and Ireland, not to mention many European capitals, we were connected with each other in the serious-minded consideration of our union’s future. Te scale of the affirmative vote – 82 per cent in favour – was as large as has ever been achieved for such a motion. Who knows whether we will ever again want or need another online DM? Te


conduct of that debate, however, and the scale of approval, provided definitive proof that NUJ democracy thrives, whether delivered at a seaside gathering or over fibre-optic cable. Undoubtably the star of the show was the digital voting app, which banished card-vote arguments and put the president in the position of a referee with VAR – no room for dispute and much quicker. Like any Zoom meeting, our get-


together was rich in unintended revelation. We met industrial firebrands who surround themselves with floral chintz. Tere were kitchens that looked more like police safe houses than homesteads and our assistant general secretary demonstrated how combining bald head, green screen and headphones creates the illusion of a halo. Doubtless he would claim this as confirmation that trades unionists are always on the side of the angels. It was all held miraculously together


by president, Sian Jones, projecting the sunny, unflappable charm of a children’s TV host. By her side (socially distanced of course), was the standing orders commitee’s John Lister, with his silvery


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